Place the comma that separates a fronted adverbial from its main clause.
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Practise it now
Drop punctuation into the gaps, then press Read it! and watch what the reader does.
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A worked example
One question of the kind this skill is tested with, worked all the way through: the reasoning, and what the wrong answers are there to catch.
Worked example: Where does the comma go?
Worked example: Which sentence puts the comma in the right place?
Under the wooden bridge, a grey heron stood perfectly still.
Under the wooden bridge a grey heron, stood perfectly still.
Under the wooden bridge a grey heron stood perfectly still.
Under the wooden bridge a grey heron stood, perfectly still.
Answer: Under the wooden bridge, a grey heron stood perfectly still.
How you get there
"Under the wooden bridge" is an introduction: it sets the scene and it is not the thing doing the action. The main clause starts at "a grey heron", so the comma closes the introduction off right before it. The version with no comma at all is wrong because it never closes off "Under the wooden bridge", so the reader runs straight from the introduction into the main clause.
Why the other answers tempt
A comma always feels right wherever you would take a breath, and a long introduction offers several tempting places.
If they are stuck, say this
Read until the introduction stops and the sentence starts telling you who did what. The comma goes at exactly that point.
Drop punctuation into the gaps, then press Read it! and watch what the reader does.
A comma after a fronted adverbial tells the reader where your introduction stops and the real sentence starts. But a comma dropped inside "eats shoots and leaves" splits the verb away from what it eats, and the panda stops being a herbivore. Punctuation is not decoration: it is instructions for the reader.
What to say if they get stuck
A fronted adverbial ("After lunch") needs a comma to show where the introduction ends.
Be very careful with commas inside "eats shoots and leaves" - press Read it! and watch the panda.
You need exactly two marks: a comma after "lunch" and a full stop right at the end.
Where punctuate a fronted adverbial sits in the 11+
The 11+ does not test these skills in isolation, and practising one in the wrong order wastes the practice. These are the skills the curriculum map connects this one to.
Questions parents ask about punctuate a fronted adverbial
Answered from what the skill map records about this skill, not from a template. Every answer here is on the page, and the same questions are the page's FAQ structured data.
Place the comma that separates a fronted adverbial from its main clause. It is one of 41 named English skills in the 11+, in the punctuation strand, and this page carries 1 interactive exercise that practises it.
The skill map puts mark a sentence boundary first. Separating a fronted adverbial presumes the main clause boundary is already secure. If punctuate a fronted adverbial keeps going wrong, that is the thing to check before doing more of this one.
A comma always feels right wherever you would take a breath, and a long introduction offers several tempting places. The wrong answers on this skill are built out of that, not out of random numbers, so it is worth naming out loud before your child meets it under time pressure.
Point at the next move rather than explaining the whole rule. Read until the introduction stops and the sentence starts telling you who did what. The comma goes at exactly that point.
The skill map draws the line here: Excludes commas in lists, parenthesis, and direct address. A question past that line is testing a different named English skill, which is worth knowing before you spend a week practising the wrong one.
The skill map connects it to punctuate direct address. Both use a comma to fence off material from the main clause, but the material differs. That skill has its own page here.
Use Punctuation Pilot, embedded on this page. It is the exercise the skill map attaches to punctuate a fronted adverbial, it runs in the browser with no account to make, nothing is scored, and nothing a child does here is recorded or sent anywhere. It also has its own link, so you can send it to a child without sending them anywhere else first.
Punctuate a fronted adverbial rests on something else being secure first
This skill depends on mark a sentence boundary. A free diagnostic checks those alongside every other english skill, so you find out whether the problem is here or underneath it.
